Last update - 00:00 02/06/2007
UN team finishes inspection of Syria-Lebanon border crossing
By Associated Press
A UN team visited a major border crossing point with Syria Saturday and spoke to customs and immigration officials amid reports of arms smuggling between the two countries, security officials said.
The visit to the Masnaa border point in the eastern Bekaa Valley came weeks after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called on Syria to work with Lebanon to prevent cross-border arms smuggling.
Later in the day, the team visited two other border areas in the Bekaa Valley, al-Aswad and Deir al-Ashaer, surveying the border with binoculars and maps, the officials said.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the UN team arrived in several vehicles amid tight security and spent more than an hour in Masnaa.
Weapons transfers to Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group are banned under a UN resolution that ended last summer's war between Israel and the group, which is backed by Iran and Syria. Ban warned during his Lebanon visit two months ago that arms smuggling across the Syria-Lebanon border threatened the Aug. 14 cease-fire.
The officials said members of the UN team chatted with customs and immigration officially, if such a mission is deployed.
Ban said in April that the Syrian government seems to be not yet ready to receive any assessment team to their border.
The visit comes days after the UN Security Council voted to establish an international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Many Lebanese have accused Syria of being behind the Feb. 14, 2005, assassination, a claim Syria denies.